Institute for International Research

IBC's 2007 conference in Tokyo, titled "Drug Discovery and Development Partnering, Licensing and R&D Innovation Summit Japan" attracted over 200 scientists and executives to discuss strategies for building a drug candidate pipeline through global alliances, compound acquisitions and Innovative R&D. An exciting keynote presentation by Toshinari Tamura, EVP and CSO of Astellas, kicked off the main conference and provided a glimpse into the R&D strategy of one of Japan's largest pharmaceutical companies. Numerous other speakers discussed partnering and alliance strategies and scientific innovations in the areas of RNAi, Antibody Therapeutics and Pharmacogenomics. A highlight of the conference as agreed by many attendees was the panel discuss led by Thomas Hofstaetter, SVP of Corporate Business Development at Wyeth titled: "How Attractive a Market is Japan in the Global Pharmaceutical Marketplace?". Panelists included Nobuyaki Baba, President and CEO of Novartis, Craig Davenport, Director, Drug Development at Eli Lilly, Patrick Keohane, VP and Head of R&D at AstraZeneca Japan and P. Reed Maurer, Chairman, aRigen, Inc., Japan. This fantastic point-counterpoint discussion clearly laid out the challenges and opportunities in Japan and culminated in a resounding consensus of "Yes, Japan is a very attractive pharmaceutical market assuming some of the current challenges are addressed". The networking at the event was even more pronounced this year with daily business card exchanges during the conference and an evening sukiyaki dinner networking event in Tokyo's famous Asakusa temple area.